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Malgré une carrière artistique exemplaire, Jean-Baptiste Oudry (1686-1755) reste connu surtout pour ses scènes de chasse, sa peinture animalière et ses natures mortes. Pourtant, il a pratiqué le paysage tout au long de sa vie, faisant preuve d’un talent certain dans ce genre pictural. Ses qualités de paysagiste ne manquèrent pas d’être relevées par les critiques des Salons de l’époque. Parmi ses sujets les plus récurrents figurent la forêt de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, les jardins d’Arcueil, ainsi que Beauvais et sa campagne environnante. Certains de ses paysages tardifs (1748-1752), peints à la demande de la Direction des Bâtiments du Roi afin d’orner les appartements privés de Versailles, se démarquent au sein de sa production de paysages. L’artiste y traite du travail agricole, en offrant un regard sur le monde paysan. Les choix formels de l’artiste poussent à questionner ses possibles sources : les représentations sont-elles le résultat de son observation du Beauvaisis, ou de son assimilation de l’art des maîtres anciens ?

ResumenIn spite of an exemplary artistic career, Jean-Baptiste Oudry ( 1686- 1755) is mostly remembered for his hunting scenes, animal painting and still lives. He was also a landscape artist all his life, however, and demonstrated an undeniable talent for this particular pictorial genre. Indeed his qualities as a landscape painter were commented upon by art critics in the Salons at the time. Among his most frequently chosen subject matters were the forest of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, the gardens of Arcueil, as well as Beauvais and its countryside. Some of his late landscapes ( 1748- 1752), which were painted on order from the Direction des Bâtiments du Roi to serve as part of the decoration of the private apartments in Versailles, stand apart from the rest of his landscapes. In these paintings, the artist chose to focus on agricultural work, thus providing a look at the peasant world. His choice of forms should lead us to question his possible sources; were his representations reflecting his observations in Beuvaisis, or rather his assimilation of the art of the old masters?